Local groups helping in Haiti

At a hospital in Port-au-Prince where he's been working with a medical team since last week's earthquake, Natick Fire Capt. Eugene Rothman delivered two babies on Thursday.

Abby Jordan

At a hospital in Port-au-Prince where he's been working with a medical team since last week's earthquake, Natick Fire Capt. Eugene Rothman delivered two babies on Thursday.

In the few phone conversations he's had with his wife, Robin Sparr, Rothman conveyed those small moments of joy, amid what otherwise has been a busy and trying time aiding Haitians, many of whom remain living on the streets, Sparr said.

Flying into Haiti, Rothman's plane nearly collided with another, and aftershocks this week shook the nerves of aid workers and the hundreds of thousands of Haitians left homeless by the original quake. Rothman told Sparr the aftershocks felt "like a Disney ride without the fun," she said.

Rothman arrived in Haiti late last Sunday as part of a first wave of emergency responders, and he's scheduled to come home this week, at a time when other MetroWest volunteers and groups are gearing up to go.

The humanitarian non-profit Bread of Compassion had, before the earthquake, planned a medical aid trip to Haiti for Jan. 25, including 10 doctors and nurses from MetroWest.

But as of Friday, that trip appeared unlikely to occur, because passenger flights into Port-au-Prince, like the flight the group is booked on, are not able to get in, said Joe Sapienza, trip leader and pastor of Celebration International Church in Wayland.

As of Friday, it looked like the only way the group could get to Haiti would be if a corporation or donor offered a private plane or charter flight, Sapienza said.

"We're not alone - there are scores of non-profits that are eager and have medical people and supplies," he said. "Logistically we can't get in."

Members of the group might go on another previously scheduled trip to Haiti in March, and another trip might also be added that month, he said.

Meanwhile, he has personnel and supplies ready to go now.

"If we had a corporate carrier or a private sponsor to help us charter a flight, I can fill it in a heartbeat with medical personnel and cargo," he said. "It's here, it's ready to go."

Nancy Aguilar, an Ashland resident who works as a surgical and intensive care nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, was hoping on Friday that the Bread of Compassion group would be able to find a way to get to Haiti.

"I really want to be there," she said. "A lot of the first responders are signed on for the first two weeks, and sometimes replacements aren't always available."

Aguilar has been on three medical trips to Haiti in as many years, treating patients from rural villages who rarely, if ever, receive medical care.

"On a good day, it's pretty bad down in Haiti," she said. "I can only imagine how devastated everything is now. People are still coming in with wounds that haven't been treated," more than a week after the quake.

Aguilar hopes people keep Haiti in their hearts for years to come.

"I'm afraid it's going to die from people's memories," she said. "Every place I've been has poverty, but the worst place I've seen is Haiti. Every day is an existence. People wake up and don't know if they'll have anything to eat or clean water to drink."

Bread of Compassion is seeking donations to pay for supplies for its Haiti medical aid trips, at www.breadofcompassion.com.

When Traci Todd, 17, heard news of the earthquake, she contacted the director of the Grace and Peace Missionaries Fellowship in Barahona, Dominican Republic, where she has volunteered five times in the last two years.

"I immediately wanted to go to Haiti," she said.

But earthquake victims are now seeking treatment at hospitals in Barahona, located a few hours over the border from Haiti, and help is needed there, Todd was told.

Her mother, Nancy Todd, a nurse at UMass Correctional Health and the Dept. of Correction, had always wanted to join her daughter on a volunteering trip, and decided now was the time.

Two of her colleagues, Dr. Patricia Ruze of Harvard and nurse Sarah Maria of Acton, also expressed interest, and the three women were given time off to go. The group is flying to Santo Domingo on Jan. 29, and will travel with other volunteers to work at a Barahona hospital.

"I have mixed emotions," Nancy Todd said. "I'm happy because we'll be able to help, but it's going to be sad."

Traci Todd, a senior at Wayland High School, has been told she'll help cook for and feed patients, and do anything else that's needed. The group might also help transport the injured from Haiti, she said.

The group got a donation of medical supplies, and is collecting donations to buy supplies, food or other necessities for the earthquake victims, through the Todds' church, Trinitarian Congregational in Wayland.

Another church group, St. Paul's Episcopal in Natick, is planning a mission trip in March or April to its sister parish and school in a rural area outside Port-au-Prince, said the Rev. Jon Strand.

Strand said he hasn't heard from members of the sister parish yet, and is hoping the people are faring well.

The church is focusing its efforts beyond the immediate need for medical support, and is hoping to find people with carpentry, plumbing and electrical skills to help with rebuilding on future mission trips.

"Before this happened, it was already such a desperate place," Strand said. "We can't take a short vision, it takes so much time to repair and restore, and there are so many obstacles."

Dr. Reynold Dahl, who works at Whitinsville Medical Center of the Milford Regional Medical Center, is scheduled to go on a medical aid trip Feb. 6-13 with the Mission E4 group. Milford Regional Medical Center has pledged to donate supplies for him to take.

Abby Jordan can be reached at 508-626-4449 or ajordan@cnc.com.

How to help - local groups seeking Haiti aid donations

Bread of Compassion humanitarian non-profit in Wayland - sending three medical aid groups in the next two months.